


The Baffling Transcontinental Road Trip of Percy Jackson

by CassandraStarflower



Series: Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Fictional Season | Part One: True Crime [4]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:07:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28011375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassandraStarflower/pseuds/CassandraStarflower
Summary: “This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we cover the case of Percy Jackson.”
Series: Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Fictional Season | Part One: True Crime [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016008
Comments: 23
Kudos: 182





	1. The Baffling Transcontinental Road Trip of Percy Jackson

**Author's Note:**

> I will acknowledge that I definitely got the dates wrong, sorry… trying to account for the couple of weeks that Percy spent at Camp Half-Blood. The summer solstice was June 20th in 2012.

The episode begins as usual. 

“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we cover the case of Percy Jackson, a twelve-year-old New Yorker who became the subject of a country-wide manhunt six years ago.” 

“I think I’ve heard of that case.” Shane said. “Weren’t there explosions?” 

“Yep.” Ryan replied. “Let’s get into it.” 

“On May 20th, 2012, twelve-year-old Percy Jackson and his mother, thirty-two-year-old Sally Jackson, who lived in New York City, traveled to the beach at Montauk for a vacation. That night, for unknown reasons, they fled their rented cabin in a car belonging to Sally’s husband, Gabriel Ugliano, leaving behind all of their possessions. The car was found crashed and partially burned two hours away in another part of Long Island, with neither Sally nor Percy anywhere near the scene. 

Sally Jackson had been a single mother for the first few years of her son’s life, and the identity of Percy’s father is unknown. She married Gabriel Ugliano at the age of twenty-two and worked several jobs, including a job at a candy shop. 

Percy, whose full name is Perseus Jackson-”

_what a name this kid’s been saddled with, huh?_

_yeah, no wonder he goes by percy_

“Percy was considered a troublemaker and had been kicked out of six schools over six years for a variety of incidents, including accidentally blowing up a school bus on a field trip to a Civil War battlefield.”

_(wheeze)_

_how?!_

_i have no idea_

“There were a number of other odd incidents, including one where a large man in a heavy coat followed an eight-year-old Percy around at school until teachers threatened to call the police. Oddly, Percy claimed that the man had had only one eye.”

_well now that is strange_

_but maybe it was a really stressful situation?_

_probably_

“At the time of the Montauk trip, he had just been kicked out of the latest school, Yancy Academy, a private boarding school meant for, quote, “troubled youths”, end quote.”

_what the fuck do you do to get kicked out of a school for troubled youths_

_a lot_

_including, apparently, swearing at teachers_

“One important thing to note is that on a field trip to a museum, Percy claimed that the pre-algebra teacher, Mrs. Dodds, had attacked him and attempted to kill him. Nothing came of this.” 

_what the fuck?! why not?!_

“According to the school’s records, there had never been a Mrs. Dodds teaching at the school at any point, and the pre-algebra teacher at the time was a woman named Elizabeth Kerr.”

_what the fuck_

_yeah_

“Percy repeatedly claimed that Mrs. Kerr had not been teaching the entire year and insisted that there had been a Mrs. Dodds. He became distressed at the fact that no one believed him, and one person I spoke to, a school counselor, believes that that may have been the cause of his behavior after the field trip, which involved a lot of flunking assignments, swearing at teachers, and getting into fights.” 

_what the hell is going on here_

_why didn’t they have him talk to someone_

_i don’t know_

“After Percy returned from school, his mother decided that the two of them would take a trip to Montauk, which was apparently a tradition. One person who knew them at the time recalls that, quote, “Sally said she met Percy’s father at Montauk”, end quote.”

_that’s kinda sweet_

_taking a nice family vacation_

_can kinda see why she wouldn’t want to bring her new husband along_

_well that and ugliano was a jerk_

_oh nice_

“Again, the reasoning behind their flight from the cabin at Montauk is unknown. What is known is that Percy remained missing for several weeks before reappearing with two other children on a bus in New Jersey on June 11th, where the three of them fought with three old women before blowing up the bus and fleeing.” 

_what_

_yeah it doesn’t make much sense to me either_

_you say fought with as though the old ladies fought back_

_according to rumor the old ladies were very skilled fighters_

_what the fuck_

“The next time Percy Jackson appeared was at the St. Louis Arch several days later, where he blew a hole in the side and vanished. Meanwhile, Gabriel Ugliano made frequent appearances on talk shows and the news, claiming that his young stepson was a violent delinquent. Sally Jackson remained entirely missing. 

Percy next appeared days after the St. Louis Arch incident, on June 19th, when he fought a man on the beach in LA, pistol to rifle. He managed to win the fight, though several police cars were destroyed in the fight, and the leather-clad stranger disappeared. A waitress in Denver later claimed that the leather-clad man had been at her restaurant with the three children and that he had been clearly dangerous and had threatened the children outside. Subsequently, people who had been at the St. Louis Arch and on the bus in New Jersey also claimed to have seen the leather-clad man, and Percy and the two other children were cleared of any charges and sent home. Sally Jackson also appeared at her apartment the day after her son was sent home.” 

_that’s a nice happy ending_

_who the fuck was the guy_

_he kidnapped them, apparently_

_who were the other two kids_

_getting to that_

“The other two children were later identified as Grover Underwood, Percy’s best friend from Yancy, and Annabeth Chase, a twelve-year-old runaway from Virginia who had been missing for five years. Annabeth’s father, Dr. Frederick Chase, later confirmed that she had indeed gotten back in contact with him and was safe.” 

_interesting_

“Several important things to note before we get into the theories: all three children later apparently began attending the Delphi Summer Camp in Long Island, and the camp supposedly also acts as a shelter for troubled teens and runaways who are afraid or unwilling to go home. 

Additionally, several weeks before Sally and Percy Jackson were returned safely home, Gabriel Ugliano cashed in Sally’s life insurance, and was, according to neighbors, quote, “disgruntled”, end quote, about having to return it. The day after Sally returned home, she reported her husband missing. He has remained a missing person to this day, and she remarried several years ago to a man named Paul Blofis.” 

_at least she got away from her jerk husband_

_he cashed in her life insurance?_

_only a few weeks after she disappeared?_

_shouldn’t that make you a person of interest?_

_probably_

“With that, let’s get into the theories.

“Theory number one: the official story, that the three kids were kidnapped by the leather-clad man, is true. 

“This is obviously a very solid theory, but there remain a few questions with it. Where was Sally Jackson this entire time? Who was the leather-clad man? And what did he want with the children?” 

_man this entire case is weird as hell_

_where was sally?_

_no one knows_

“As a result of these unanswered questions, several other theories have been put forth. 

“Theory number two: the leather-clad man was hired by Gabriel Ugliano to get Percy and Sally out of the way. It must be noted that he had, as noted before, cashed in Sally’s life insurance, that some neighbors believed he was abusive towards Sally, and that he was at least verbally abusive towards Percy. It also must be noted that he apparently hated his stepson. It is possible that the leather-clad man was some type of thug or mercenary who successfully stashed Sally somewhere, that Percy escaped several times, accidentally picking up two other kids along the way, and that Sally escaped on her own and returned home.”

_huh_

_so the stepdad’s a total jerk_

_i can’t say i like this theory but it makes sense_

_it does_

_but i do like the next one_

_what is it?_

_it better not be aliens ryan_

“Theory number three: Percy and Sally were kidnapped by aliens.” 

_fuck you_

_just hear me out, okay_

“This theory can explain why Sally remained missing for days after Percy’s rescue, the absence of any information about the leather-clad man, and what really happened in New Jersey, St. Louis, and LA.”

_no_

_okay, fine_

_fair enough_

“In the end, we have no way of knowing who the leather-clad man was and what he wanted, as none of his victims have spoken on the subject. And until the authorities find him or his three victims speak up, this case will remain

UNSOLVED.”

“Well Ryan, I can’t say this case isn’t famous and interesting.” 

“It sure is. I’ll admit the whole thing is kinda weird. Lots of little inconsistencies.” Ryan closed his folder. “What do you think happened?” 

“Some combination of theories one and two?” 

“Hmm. Maybe.” Ryan turned to the camera. “Make sure to send us your questions for the postmortem!”


	2. Percy Jackson Q&A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s time for the postmortem!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the questions, everyone!

“Hello and welcome back to another episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Postmortem, where we answer your most pressing questions about the last episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, which was Percy Jackson.” 

While Ryan spoke, Shane stared somewhere off-camera, looking very much like he’d seen a ghost. 

“The questions we’re answering today came from our Facebook, our Instagram, and directly from the video on BUN. Question one comes from biichan on the video. ‘For the post-mortem: If Ugliano hired the leather clad man (LCM), maybe he disappeared afterward because the LCM was pissed off he'd saddled him with such a terrible job and put a hit on him. Or maybe Ugliano couldn't afford to pay him if he'd had to return the life insurance payment, so he killed him. I don't know why, but I get the feeling this evil stepfather is pretty dead by now.’ You know what? Yeah. Those are all pretty likely options.” 

Shane nodded. “Seems legit. Question two comes from your favorite Instagram commenter with the secret sources, Selene Starflower. ‘ Question for the postmortem: It's interesting to note that three children returned a missing poodle in the same area as the bus explosion. There was a large monatary reward, the children match the descriptions of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, and the same three children bought train tickets to St. Louis. Also, side note. The car they were driving had a massive crack in the roof and the most likely explanation for that is a lightning strike. The car also jad dried mud on it and there were skid marks down the road that were made by the roof of the car for about half a mile. The gas tank exploded too. Whatever caused that accident was no mere mortal force.’ I have no idea what you mean by ‘no mere mortal force’, since I highly doubt that your average mother-and-son duo from New York is mixed up in like, Justice League stuff, but that’s interesting.” 

“I didn’t find the thing about the train tickets and the missing poodle.” Ryan said thoughtfully. “That’s interesting. And yeah, what I found was that lightning may have hit the car. Dunno about ‘no mere mortal force’, but the rest makes sense.” 

“We still have questions, Miss Starflower.” Shane added. 

“Question three comes from Facebook, from Hayleigh: ‘Postmortem: Is it possible that the man in leather is Percy's bio father, or related to him? Are there any theories as to who that man was?’ That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of the possibility of the father’s side of the family, but it’s possible. I mean, we don’t know  _ anything _ about the kid’s father or anything about that side of the family. Maybe a cousin or uncle, I doubt it’s actually his father. There was a comment from a neighbor made years later about a man who visited the Jackson-Blofis family on Percy’s birthday a few years later who Percy addressed as ‘dad’, and didn’t apparently resemble the leather-clad man. So who knows.” 

“Interesting questions.” Shane said with a nod. 

“Yep. Well, Shane, we’ve just got one more episode this season.” 

“What’s it about?” 

“It’s the second-oldest mystery we’ve done this season, after the Cassidy Chacon and Nerissa Crossnic one. It’s also a fairly famous case with several interesting theories. A  _ chilling _ case, truly.” 

“Can’t wait.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have bad news for everyone. There will be one more episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Fictional Season|Part One: True Crime. This series will be going on hiatus until after the holiday season. I need time to recover from the intense amount of updating I’ve been doing. I’ve also been getting killer headaches the last couple of weeks and can’t stick to an update schedule to save my life.   
> But there is one more episode, this Friday! I hope you all check it out!

**Author's Note:**

> Please do leave comments for the Q&A.  
> Follow me on tumblr @cassandra-starflower!


End file.
